Friday, March 24, 1978
University Daily Kansan
Congressman cited in payroll fraud
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rep. Charles C. Diggs Jr., a founder of the Congressional Black Caucus, was charged yesterday with taking 160,000 in kickbacks.
$13,620
The Michigan Democrat, the senior black member of Congress and the chairman of the committee that oversees Washington's city government, was named by a congressional-indictment that carries penalty totals 175 years in prison and $224,000 in fines.
Digg, 35, in Mozambique on a 15-day tour of African nations in his role as chairman of the house subcommittee on Africa, said in a telephone interview that he received reps until he saw a bill of billions. But his office issued a statement in which he declared, "I am innocent. I do not believe I have violated any federal or House rule.
"I AM CONFIDENT that due process of law will vindicate me," Digsgs said. The statement complained about the timing of the indictment, saying Digsgs failed pleaded with the Justice Department to delay until it be complete his oversee mission.
Diggs was scheduled to join President Jimmy Carter during the chief executive's state visit to Nigeria next week. The statement indicated that the congressman planned to go through with those ceremonies.
DIGGS WAS CHARGED specifically with 14 counts of mail fraud, carrying penalties of five years in prison and $1,000 for each
The grand jury accused Diggs of infiltrating the salaries and taking kickbacks from three of his House employees and of using them to hire insiders whose workers for his private business.
count, and 21 counts of making a false statement to the government on payroll vouchers, punishable by five years and $10,000 for each count.
Digas was the target of federal investigators for about a year. Last June, the House consented to a grand jury subpoena for the payroll records of former legislative secretary Jean G. Stultz and field representative Felix Matlock.
THE GRAND JURY charged that Diggs, revered by Washington residents for helping the once-voteless city gain the right to elect its own mayor and city council, had
packed portions of pay for both Stultz and
Officer Dukes, for that a third office worker, Office Dukes.
Their salaries are deliberately inflated, with the salary of Stuitz allegedly raised from $14,687.84 to $3,755 a year. Diggs took kickbacks ranging up to $3,112 a month between July 1973 and March 1977, the grand jury charged.
DUKE'S, NOW A public relations consultant in Washington, dated yesterday.
The indictment also charged that Diggs paid three employees of the House of Diggs, a Detroit funeral home inherited from his father, out of his federal payroll.
Despite earning $500 as a congressman and falling heir in 1967 to his father's prospering mortuary and real estate, DiCaprio was known to have deep personal debts.
Federal agency outlaws risky rail car wheels
WASHINGTON (UPI)—High-carbon rail car wheels, such as those that caused a derailment and explosion at Waverley, Tenn., last month must be removed from all tank cars carrying hazardous material by March 31, the Federal Railroad Administration rules yesterday.
Also, by the end of the year, the agency decreed, such wheels must be removed from all types of railroad cars.
The agency also ruled that no car with the wheels, which are prone to crack under high heat, can be carried after June 30 in any train that has other cars
carrying chlorine, propane, acids or other hazardous materials.
IN ADDITION, there will be a hearing April 7 to determine whether there can be an increase in installation of safety devices on tanks cars and another on trucks. This could be needed regarding wheels on flat cars containing containers of hazardous material.
The FRA actions stemmed from several recent derailments, some of which resulted in deaths and injuries. However, the major factor was the explosion of a bomb which a progeny tank car exploded when being enclosed after a derailment.
Congress passes retirement bill
WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress passed and sent to the White House yesterday a bill to prohibit private businesses from forcing employees to retire before age 70.
The measure, approved 62 to 10 by the Senate, would not allow the federal government to forly继企业 its employee at any age. The House passed the bill earlier.
Rep. Claude Pepper, D-Fla., chairman of the House Aging Committee, said he expected President Jimmy Carter to sign the measure next month. He said that many of those which workers could collect full Social Security benefits and would not generally affect private pension plans
generally direct, private penance,
"THIS BILL marks the first step in
guaranteeing the right to grow old in
dignity," Pepper, 77, said.
dignity, "Pepper," 12. Sen. Harrison A. Williams Jr., D-N.J.
Human Resources Committee chairman,
said the bill gave older Americans the basic
rights of people to remain in the work force as long as they were capable.
Basically, the legislation expands a 1961 law prohibiting age discrimination in employment. Under the measure, as of Jan. 1, 1979, a private employer who employs at least 20 workers will not be able to force them to retire until age 70.
Starting Sept. 30, the bill will wipe out a requirement that civilian federal employees must be paid for the services of the U.S. Army.
ACCOUNTING TO A congressional staff report 'here probably will not be a flood of old ca.' service workers remaining on the job under the new law.
wunch most persons can begin collecting their maximum Social Security benefits, but it is anticipated that the financial pressure on the Social Security system would be because some persons who would have been forced to retire at $5 would remain working.
State and local governments are covered under the new bill, but there are occupational exceptions, such as persons in the high-risk jobs of policemen or firefighters. They still could be forced to retire earlier than 70.
PEPPER SAID high private pension plans would not be affected by the bill. Wording of most plans require a worker to retire before being eligible for a pension, he said, adding that those plans that give a pension credit could be changed by collective bargaining.
The bill will not alter 65 as the age at
The bill going to the White House has several exemptions, written in mainly because of lobbying pressure from business and higher educational institutions.
Until July 1, 1982, the bill permits mandatory retirement of college and university faculty members between ages 65 and 70 who have unlimited tenure.
UN forces in Lebanon increase
BEIRUT (AP) — The United Nations raised its flag yesterday near the Litan River and prepared to create a buffer zone of settlements in Aleppo, a Palestinian guerrilla in southern Lebanon.
The Palestine Liberation Organization said the Lebanese government was withholding aid from Palestinian refugees. The organization also urged international help for the Palestinians.
Only sporadic violations of a two-day-old truce were reported in the war-torn area, but a bureaucratic battle shrouded emergency aid and have streamed to Beirut from the south since Israel launched an invasion into the area March 15.
Another convoy of Iranian peacekeeping forces and Irish officers heading for southern Lebanah was delayed for about an hour yesterday by Lebanese Christian children who blocked the road at a border crossing.
BEIRUT STATE RADIO said a 120-man Iranian U.N. peacekeeping force transferred from the nearby Golan Heights buffer zone set up outposts on both sides of the Litani River, which is 15 miles north and parallel to the Israeli-Lebanese border.
crossing.
U.S. mission, coaching from Christian灵敏, the children sat on the roadway and chanted "We want Israel." Southern Lebanon's Christians, who have battled the Palestinians and are sympathetic to Israel, fear that a U.N. force will be unable to protect them against guerrilla returning to the area, and they want the Israeli to stay.
AN ISRAELI OFFICER eventually persuaded the militiamen to clear away the children and allow the 30-truck U. nconv to proceed toward the Lebanese town of Gandourie, where they were to join up with members of the first Iranian contingent.
U. N. sources in Beirut said they could not confirm an Israeli radio report that
Christian militiamen fired over the heads of the Iranians near Ghandourie as the headed for a strategic highway bridge near the Litani River.
"The Irians pushed ahead, took the bridge, set up a permanent post and raised the U.N. flag on it," the Israeli broadcast said.
A 200-MAN VANGUARD of a 600-men French marine paratroop battalion fight to Beirut and prepared to move through the port. The battalion also faced the next few days. The battalion includes
battle veterans of the Indochinese and Algerian wars.
A major test of Palestinian willingness to yield positions to U.N. peacekeeping forces is expected today when the French paratroopers send a patrol south to reconnaître for positions. U.N. sources said they should be armed with light defensive weapons.
When completed, the U.N. force,
established by a U.N. Security Council
resolution, is to be comprised of 4,000 men
from at least six countries.
★★★
Begin reaffirms position on occupied Arab lands
WASHINGTON (AP)—Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin called his talks with President Jimmy Carter "difficult," and yesterday reaffirmed his intention to maintain Jewish settlements in captured Arab lands.
At the same time, Begin called for a renewal of American understanding for Israel's peace proposals to Egypt and "a revival of the spirit of Jerusalem" that marked Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's visit to city last November.
In a farewell speech before the National Press Club, the Israel leader acknowledged sharp differences with the Carter administration, particularly on interpretation of U.N. resolutions calling for Israel to withdraw from occupied during the six-day war of 1967.
BUT HE DENIED reports that Carter was trying to force him out of office and said, "I believe there is a basic friendship between the United States and Israel, so keep and love our hearts that there is compassion to believe verbs, soon these difficulties will disappear."
When the peace plan was revealed last December, Begin said, Carter cited it as a long step forward and Secretary of State Vance called it a notable contribution.
Still, Begin implicitly criticized Carter in his speech to the press club, saying U.S.
praise for Israeli peace proposals had suddenly disappeared.
BEGIN SAID in his speech, "I submit that if such was the objective reaction voiced only three months ago, it should not be forgotten."
At the White House, press secretary Jody Powell said, "It's not our view that the peace process as a whole is at an end." Powell refused to speculate on the administration's next move in the Middle East peace effort.
U. S. officials denied that there was a crisis in U.S.-Israeli relations. They said that after consultations within the ad-hoc council, the negotiation made on how to move the negotiations ahead.
In the speech and earlier in an interview with NBC, Begin appeared for patience in a debate.
"We've only started to negotiate," he said in the network interview. "I don't think any of them are going to change."
HILLEL PRESENTS Another LOX AND BAGEL BRUNCH
After the brunch, PAUL FRIEDMAN
Associate Professor of Speech and Drama at K.U., will conduct a discussion on Interfaith Dating.
Sunday March 26
Admission
$1.00 members
$2.00 non-members
11:30a.m.
Jewish Community Center Highland Rd.
917 Highland Dr.
Millionaire at Midnight
9 p.m. to 12 a.m.
Friday
&
Saturday
Next Week . .
MONTAGE
Performance
Arrangements
by
NORTH
COUNTRY FAIR
TALEST
Events
... The folks at J. Watson's have lowered their prices so you can have a good time for less than it would cost at any other nightspot in Lawrence . . .
Great Prices
Admission $1.50
Pitchers $1.70
TONIGHT: WOMEN'S COALITION meets at 6:30 in the International Room of the Kansas University. THE CREATIVE FANTASY Club meets at 7 in Bardons and C of the Union. AN ORATORIO WORKSHOP begins at 7:30 in the University Lutheran Church, 15th and Iowa streets. JOE UTERBACK, pianist, presents his doctoral recital at 8 in Swarthout Recital Hall in Murphy Hall.
9th and Iowa in the Hillcrest Shopping Center
Senate favors Carter banker, despite protest
WASHINGTON (UPI) - Sen. William Proxmire, D-Wis., gave congressional yesterday that President Jimmy Carter had named a Texas banker as first vice president of the Export-Import Bank because of the bank's early support of Carter's presidential candidacy.
KANSAN On Campus
Despite Proxmire's opposition, the nomination of the banker, H.K. Allen of Temple, Texas, was approved by voice vote with less than a dozen senators on the floor.
Proxmire charge that Allen, who headed four small Texas banks, was totally responsible to run the multibillion dollar bank. Joseph was nominated only for political reasons.
the early bird gets it!
up to 2 months FREE RENT sign up before FRI., MARCH 31
where comfortable Jayhawks live
easy walking distance to classes comfortable 2-bedroom apartments central air conditioning and heating wall-to-wall carpeting cablevision hook-up variety shop free utilities
swimming pool
bar-b-que grills
laundry facilities on-site
security service
location on bus line
on campus living
OFFICE HOURS: Mon.-Fri. 9:00-5:30 Sat.10:00-4:00